Fleet managers with access to this data are sitting on a goldmine of information about their vehicles’ performance and usage. But how many people really understand what the data means or what can be done with it?

Even high quality information will quickly lose value if fleet managers have to work extra hard to understand it. The point we’re making is that telematics is fantastic but it’s only by placing the data in context that fleet managers can really start to see the bigger picture.

For example, telematics systems may alert you to fault codes on company vehicles, but what do you do with this information? If the information generated never leaves the telematics software is it providing actionable information on defects or is it just raw data?

A good way of making better use of telematics is to combine the data with a fleet and maintenance management system. This way, the fault codes can be raised as defects and resolved before any serious issue or downtime occurs.

Elsewhere, telematics can tell us about drivers’ behaviour, which is certainly useful – but fleet management systems can reveal the bigger picture by comparing vehicle and fuel costs, training effectiveness, automated alters and more.